February 2009

Calendar of Events:

The Purdue University Agricultural Alumni Fish Fry on Feb. 7 will give attendees an inside look at the national political scene from the perspective of a broadcast news veteran. Andrea Mitchell, the anchor of MSNBC's "The Andrea Mitchell Hour" and chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News, will be the guest speaker during the luncheon that begins at 11:30 a.m. in the Toyota Blue Ribbon Pavilion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.

2009 Distinguished Agriculture Alumni Award Recipients for Agricultural Economics are:  Elizabeth A. Bechdol, and Richard Halderman.   Ceremony will be held March 6th with a 2:30 pm reception and the Awards Convocation at 3:30 pm in the Purdue Memorial Union, North Ballroom.

Congratulations and Names in the News:

Andres Garcia has accepted a position as:

Assistant Research Professor
Development Economics Research Group
Department of Economics
University of Copenhagen
Studiestræde 6,  DK-1455
Copenhagen K, Denmark

Thought You Would Like to Know:

An integrated research and extension project by Joe Balagtas, Matt Holt, and Chris Hurt, “Determination of Prices and Margins in the Corn-Ethanol Complex,” was funded by the Purdue Agricultural Research Program’s Mission Oriented Grant for the year 2009.

News from Center for Food and Agricultural Business:

Dr. Ken Foster announced that Allan Gray has been named director of the Center for Food and Agricultural Business and the MS-MBA in Food and Agribusiness Management.  Dr. Gray has been serving as interim director for the center and replaces Jay Akridge, who was recently named the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture at Purdue. Before his interim role, Dr. Gray was the center’s associate director of research programs. As director, Dr. Gray will provide strategic direction for the center and MS-MBA in Food and Agribusiness Management, a dual-degree, distance-delivered program offered in partnership by Purdue and Indiana University. He will work with food and agribusiness managers in the center’s professional development programs and conduct research on agribusiness management and making decisions in uncertain environments, while also continuing to teach undergraduate and graduate classes in strategic management.

ARA Leadership Academy set for February 3-5
The center is excited to host more than 35 agricultural retailers and distributors February 3-5 at the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) Leadership Academy. Agricultural economics professors Allan Gray, Mike Boehlje, Frank Dooley and Scott Downey, along with Rodney Vandeveer from the Department of Organizational Leadership and Supervision, will lead participants through an exploration of management topics, such as strategy, financial management, sales and marketing, operations and human resources. Joseph Suttles, a graduate student in agricultural economics, will also assist participants with various financial exercises throughout the seminar. The academy is designed specifically for ARA members and is a partnership between the center and ARA, which lobbies on behalf of agricultural retailers and distributors to Congress and the Executive Branch. For more information on the academy, contact Jane Anderson, program manager, at jane1@purdue.edu or 496-3099.

Graduate Student Opportunities
Network with potential employers and gain experience in the classroom by volunteering at one of the center’s programs. To learn more about opportunities throughout the year, contact Michelle Query, office manager, at mquery@purdue.edu or 494-4247.

New class coming together for MS-MBA
Applications are now being accepted for the MS-MBA in Food and Agribusiness Management. If you know of anyone who may be interested in this dual-degree, distance-delivered program, contact Luanna DeMay, program manager, at Luanna@purdue.edu or 494-4270. To learn more about the program, visit www.agecon.purdue.edu/agribusiness.

Upcoming 2009 programs
March 3-6            ASTA Management Academy
May 28-29           Sales Management and Leadership
June 11-12          Precision Selling
To learn more, visit www.agecon.purdue.edu/cab

News from Indiana Council for Economic Education (ICEE):

The Indiana Council for Economic Education (ICEE) continues to promote Financial Literacy throughout Indiana, and even the United States.  ICEE is offering its new Interest Posters to K-12 teachers in training programs and workshops.  The posters tell how interest can work for you with regular saving and investing, and can work against you if you have too much high-interest debt.  View posters at http://www.kidseconposters.com/interest.html. 

Resources at Purdue :

PURE—Purdue University Research Expertise database—has evolved into INDURE—Indiana Database for University Research Expertise. PURE is outdated and will soon be retired. INDURE is supported through the state and Purdue. Plans are to continue INDURE upgrade and maintenance.

https://www.indure.org/index.cfm?InstitutionFilter=1

Travel, Speeches and Presented Papers:

Will Masters will be in Washington, DC on February 25th for the launch of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Global Agricultural Development Project Report, as a member of the project’s Experts Committee.  The launch event will be at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, and will consist of panel discussions led by Catherine Bertini and Dan Glickman.  Details on the project are at www.thechicagocouncil.org/taskforce_details.php?taskforce_id=11.

Kwamena Quagrainie will travel to Aquaculture America 2009, Seattle WA Feb 15-19 and to the North Central Regional Aquaculture Meeting, Kansas City, MO Feb 26-29.

Joe Balagtas will present his paper, “Voluntary Labeling Under Identity Preservation Costs and Market Power” at the Spring 2009 meeting of the NEC-63/FAMPS joint conference, Promotion Through Credence Attributes, held in San Diego, CA, February 2-5, 2009.

Hertel, T.W. “Global Poverty Impacts of Biofuels”, presented to the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium, Phoenix, Arizona, December 7, 2008.

Hertel, T.W. “Future Directions for Agricultural Trade Modeling at the OECD”, OECD Agricultural Directorate, Paris, December 1, 2008.

Hertel, T.W. “Global Land Use Impacts of Biofuels”, US-EPA modeling workshop on biofuels regulations, Washington, DC, January 6, 2009.

Roman Keeney participated in the JRC/EEA/OECD  Experts Consultation “Review and Inter-comparison of Modelling Land Use Change Effects of Bioenergy,” Paris, France, January 27-30.

Publications:

William A. Masters and Benoit Delbecq, “Accelerating innovation with prize rewards: History and typology of technology prizes and a new
contest design for innovation in African agriculture”, IFPRI Discussion Paper No. 835, December 2008.  http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/dp/ifpridp00835.asp.

William A. Masters and Gerald E. Shively, “Introduction to the special issue on the world food crisis”  Agricultural Economics 39 (s1): 373-374.  http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121554063/issue

Mishili, F. J., Fulton, J., Shehu, M., Kushwaha, S., Marfo, K., Jamal, M., Kergna, A. and Lowenberg-DeBoer, J., 2009, “Consumer Preferences for Quality Characteristics Along the Cowpea Value Chain in Nigeria, Ghana, and Mali”, Agribusiness, Val. 25(1) 16 – 35(2009).

R. Keeney, and J. Beckman. 2009. “WTO Negotiations on Agriculture and the Distributional Impacts for US Rice Farm Households,” Food Policy 34(1): 70-80.

Internship Opportunities:

http://www.federalreserve.gov/careers/intern_research.htm

http://www.fsdinternational.org/intlopps/programs/internships1

http://www.fcnl.org/young/intern.htm

http://www.uschamber.com/careers/internships/default

http://www.unausa.org/site/pp.asp?c=fvKRI8MPJpF&b=317257

Job Announcements:

Texas A&M – Assistant Lecturer
West Virginia University – Energy Markets and related public policy
Oregon State University:  Assist Prof, Rural Econ
West Texas A&M University:  Assist Prof of Agricultural Business and Finance
North Dakota State University:  Assist Prof

ERS:  http://www.ers.usda.gov/AboutERS/Employment/OpportunitiesPage.htm

Job Vacancies at ERS -
Social Science Analyst GS-0101-09/11
GS-0110-09/11 Economist/Ag Economist

The next 3 are different positions -

Public Affairs Specialist GS-1035-12/13

Public Affairs Specialist GS-1035-12/13

Public Affairs Specialist GS-1035-12/13

Career and Job Sites on the Internet:

For further information, see the Job Posting File in Room 651

Contact Lou Ann Baugh concerning information to be included in future issues of KT

Keeping Track Monthly Newsletter Archive

November 24, 2009

Introducing a Special Issue of Agricultural Economics on the World Food Crisis of 2007-08

Now accepting applications for Natural Resources Leadership Development Institute

Considering becoming an Agricultural Economics student? Please visit our Future Student pages.

USDA National Needs Fellowships In The Economics Of Alternative Energy are available. For more information, download the pdf.